Minister column: Committing to reading the psalms

By Rev. Randy Spaugh / Columnist

Published: Friday, May 9, 2014 at 06:01 PM.

I called an old college friend for some information that I suspected she might have, and she did. At the end of the conversation, I asked how her dad was getting along. He is 84 and still preaches. While he does not pastor a church, he is asked to fill some fairly well known pulpits. He is one of those people that I want to be like when I am his age. She answered; “He is still reading all 150 psalms every month.” Evidently he had been doing this for years. This is a memory about her father that will always stay with her.

I thought this was a rather heroic thing to do. This would take a great deal of time and it surely would not fit into my schedule. I pulled out my calculator and found that you could do this by reading only five psalms a day. In fact, reading the psalms monthly is exceptionally easy to do. Most psalms can be read in a minute or two. Only a few are longer.

So this is what I did. I bought a pocket copy of the psalms which is most often called the Psalter. I now have copies from four different versions. I keep it in my car and on my desk. When I get to the hospital, I read a psalm before I go in. I read a psalm before I leave the office, before I make a pastoral call and before I leave the grocery store. Since each psalm takes only a minute or two to read, it does not disrupt my day. My most common problem is that I finish the five daily psalms early in the day with none left over for the evening. I find that He helps everyday events go so much smoother if I give Him this little bit of time.

Never do I let this take the place of my reading the rest of the Bible, which I prefer to do in the morning or at night when I am alone. Using the psalms in such a manner allows God to speak to me from His word in all parts of the day. The psalms contain so many different kinds of prayers that it often reminds me of prayers I have forgotten to pray. Most often I find it to be just the prayer I need.

How do I do this? Let me suggest three ways. The easiest way is simply to read five psalms a day beginning with Psalm 1 and ending with Psalm 150. Another way is to use the reading schedule that is in the Book of Common Prayer. This method takes into account the longer psalms. It adjusts the number of psalms read daily according to their length.

A third method is more complicated but has its benefits. Here you would begin the first day of the month by reading Psalm 1 and add 30, which would place you at Psalm 31, then 61, then 91 and lastly 121. If you follow this pattern by reading five psalms each day you will finish the Psalter in thirty days. Are there advantages to this more complicated approach? It will place you in different section of the Psalter each day. There is an unintended blessing of distributing the longer psalms a little more evenly into the daily readings.

What do you do with Psalm 119? This is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses. It is three times longer than the Book of Jonah. While the Book of Common Prayer incorporates Psalm 119 into our daily readings, the other methods do not. I skip Psalm 119 and save it for day 31. Then I can concentrate on the one psalm that whole day.

I called an old college friend for some information that I suspected she might have, and she did. At the end of the conversation, I asked how her dad was getting along. He is 84 and still preaches. While he does not pastor a church, he is asked to fill some fairly well known pulpits. He is one of those people that I want to be like when I am his age. She answered; “He is still reading all 150 psalms every month.” Evidently he had been doing this for years. This is a memory about her father that will always stay with her.

I thought this was a rather heroic thing to do. This would take a great deal of time and it surely would not fit into my schedule. I pulled out my calculator and found that you could do this by reading only five psalms a day. In fact, reading the psalms monthly is exceptionally easy to do. Most psalms can be read in a minute or two. Only a few are longer.

So this is what I did. I bought a pocket copy of the psalms which is most often called the Psalter. I now have copies from four different versions. I keep it in my car and on my desk. When I get to the hospital, I read a psalm before I go in. I read a psalm before I leave the office, before I make a pastoral call and before I leave the grocery store. Since each psalm takes only a minute or two to read, it does not disrupt my day. My most common problem is that I finish the five daily psalms early in the day with none left over for the evening. I find that He helps everyday events go so much smoother if I give Him this little bit of time.

Never do I let this take the place of my reading the rest of the Bible, which I prefer to do in the morning or at night when I am alone. Using the psalms in such a manner allows God to speak to me from His word in all parts of the day. The psalms contain so many different kinds of prayers that it often reminds me of prayers I have forgotten to pray. Most often I find it to be just the prayer I need.

How do I do this? Let me suggest three ways. The easiest way is simply to read five psalms a day beginning with Psalm 1 and ending with Psalm 150. Another way is to use the reading schedule that is in the Book of Common Prayer. This method takes into account the longer psalms. It adjusts the number of psalms read daily according to their length.

A third method is more complicated but has its benefits. Here you would begin the first day of the month by reading Psalm 1 and add 30, which would place you at Psalm 31, then 61, then 91 and lastly 121. If you follow this pattern by reading five psalms each day you will finish the Psalter in thirty days. Are there advantages to this more complicated approach? It will place you in different section of the Psalter each day. There is an unintended blessing of distributing the longer psalms a little more evenly into the daily readings.

What do you do with Psalm 119? This is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses. It is three times longer than the Book of Jonah. While the Book of Common Prayer incorporates Psalm 119 into our daily readings, the other methods do not. I skip Psalm 119 and save it for day 31. Then I can concentrate on the one psalm that whole day.

So, all you have to do is get started. Are you going to win points with God by doing this? Probably not! Having God speak to you several times each day from His word might lead you closer to Jesus. Remember, it is not that God is not here, we are just too busy to discern His presence.